melissabreau

When you work for yourself, you’re not just a dog trainer… you’re a business owner. And that means doing a whole lot more than just training dogs.

Yet so often, even when we have the best of intentions, the tasks that need to happen for our business that aren’t directly related to the work we need to do every day for our clients — things like marketing, answering emails, or reconciling receipts — fall by the wayside. We know they’re important. We know they need to happen. Yet they never seem to get done.

That’s fine… for a while. But when those types of tasks get put off for too long, problems begin to emerge.

We’ve all been there.

I know I certainly have — someone asks you what you do for a living, and you describe running your own business in a way that makes it sound downright cushy. You make your own hours! Unlimited time off! Only have to work with people you like!

…and you conveniently leave off all the “hard parts.”

You know, the long hours, overwhelming email inbox, and times when it takes 8 conversations just to schedule a single client lesson. The part where your boss (aka you!) has unrealistic expectations about how much can be done in a day. Oomph.